Cheil Germany has developed a sustainable alternative to plastic bags for fruits and vegetables for EDEKA Scheck-In-Center, the supermarket owned by Germany’s largest chain.

Cheil Germany has developed a sustainable alternative to plastic bags for fruits and vegetables for EDEKA Scheck-In-Center, the supermarket owned by Germany’s largest chain.

The 100% bio-degradable FEEDitBAG is made out of Mater-Bi, which is produced from renewable resources such as corn starch and is completely compostable in only 10 weeks. Each bag is equipped with fruit or vegetable seeds and planting instructions so after it has acted as a shopping bag it becomes a compostable bag for organic waste that can grow new plants.

The thin plastic fruit and vegetable bags are used every day by the billions. Each of them pollutes nature for up to 500 years. Cheil Germany and EDEKA Scheck-In-Center want to raise awareness of this problem and change consumer behavior by introducing a sustainable solution with FEEDitBAG.

The FEEDitBAG was launched at Scheck-In-Center in Frankfurt, a flagship store of EDEKA. It reduced the waste of 150,000 regular plastic bags per month.

Customers are being given the chance to vote online to choose what design will feature on the next FEEDitBAGs at www.feeditbag.com. At the moment, Cheil Germany is in discussions with leading supermarket chains to plan a product rollout in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Peter Splettstoesser, Store Manager of EDEKA Scheck-In Center Frankfurt, said: “We have a wide range of fresh goods, which means we use 150,000 to 200,000 plastic bags a month, which is more than a million every year. If all markets and industry partners join and only use bio-degradable bags, plastic would be completely removed from the market.”

Roland Rudolf, CCO, Cheil Germany GmbH, said: “Everybody is talking about alternatives for plastic, but the fruit and vegetable bags are still used everyday. We believe that if we emotionally touch consumers, we can change their behavior. And this is what FEEDitBAG does, because it is the first bag that gives life instead of taking it.”